By Rotimi Ojomoyela

Like a thief in the night, armed robbers struck in Otun-Ekiti, Moba Local Government Headquarters last week Thursday night, leaving in its wake a tell-tale of woes, anguish and flood of tears.

Four persons, a bank manager, a soon-to-wed young security guard and two other persons were shot dead by the rampaging hoodlums.

Among the dead were Olaoluwa Afolayan Jimoh, 29, the young security guard working with an old generation  bank and Pa Philip Abiodun, the Oore of Otun, Oba Adedapo Popoola’s security guard.

At the family house of Olaoluwa Afolayan in Odo-Iladun area of Otun, the deceased family members, friends and associates were gathered in clusters, engrossed in muted discussion, while some laboured to restrain grief-stricken family members.

Late Olaoluwa’s wedding plan: Mrs. Bolanle Bello, who was identified as the eldest woman in the Family, amidst sobs told Vanguard that all preparations for the wedding of the deceased with his now heavily pregnant fiancee, Damilola, were on top gear as at Friday, (November 11), evening when she saw him last: “I spoke with Olaoluwa a hour before his death. He had come to see me here at our family house in Odo-Iladun area of Otun to discuss his wedding plans.

“We had discussed how we would buy the items on the engagement list his wife-to-be’s family had sent for the wedding ceremony. My younger brother who remains as a father for him since he lost his father some years ago, had come visiting regarding  the wedding preparations. He had prostrated to us all in gratitude after our deliberations.

“When his pregnant fiancee heard the shocking news of his death, she immediately collapsed and fainted. She is currently in the hospital now, Madam Bello said.

Recalling the lifetime of Olaoluwa, Mrs Belo said, “People around us knew him much more than I do. Since yesterday that he was killed, our family house had been milling with people, as many young and old people who knew Olaoluwa for his benevolence thronged here in hundreds to sympathize with us.

”An elderly woman, who used to buy yams from his farm had confessed about his generosity, saying that some days ago, Olaoluwa had prepared some pounded yam and when she could not eat the food, the drivers who had gone to the farm with her to carry the yams had to eat the meal. That was how benevolent they said he was.

Mr. Oni James, a maternal uncle to deceased Olaoluwa, fighting back tears, said “On the same day he was shot dead, our mother had called in the morning to tell me that our family head from Akure had visited and dropped his own part of the money we are contributing for Olaoluwa’s wedding scheduled to hold in two weeks’ time.

She had told me that in case we would not make the wedding, we should send our own part of what we would use to assist him. It was however, disastrous for me to also get another call in the evening that the boy whose wedding we were preparing had been shot dead by some bank armed robbers.

“This morning we had to rush down from Ado-Ekiti. We went straight to the Oore Otun, monarch’s palace who took us to the police station and we also went to the scene of the crime at the unity and Heritage bank. Everyone who witnessed what happened testified to it that he died while he had already resumed work. We met with his bank manager and a regional manager who had come from Lagos and they also confirmed this and also promised to assist in some way during his burial which we do not want to take time.

“The bank had also sent representatives to commiserate with us. We have also followed all due procedures in documenting his death. His fiancee is just a school certificate holder and teaching at a private Nursery and Primary School in Otun.” Pa Philip Abiodun Sunday, 65 year-old was the monarch’s security guard shot dead by the gunmen while he was struggling to close the gate of the palace.

Pa Philip took up the job in 2002. A father of nine children from three women with many of the children still very young. The lastborn was just three years old and in a Kindergarten School in the community.  His Eldest daughter, a 30-year old Odunayo could not control her tears while speaking with Vanguard at their family house in Odo-Mayan area of Otun.

“My father had secured a plot of land six months ago and was planning to start building on it. He would now have to be buried on the landed property. His 17-year old daughter, Ruth Abiodun is sitting for the coming West African Examinations Council (WAEC). Our lastborn, little Ebenezer just turned 3. I spoke with my father about three weeks ago and he promised to assist me on getting the equipments for my tailoring vocation and also assist me in doing the freedom ceremony which had been put on hold for over six months now due to lack of money.

“My father had promised that he would make sure everything is done by next year January. But see what has happened to him now,”  she said, sobbing. Odunayo pleaded with the government to assist the family in sponsoring the youngest three of the family, whose ages range from 10, 6 and 3 and the girl who is sitting for WAEC.

The Robbery saga: The robbers had emptied the treasury of two new generation banks affected and dispatched four innocent lives into early grave. They had stormed the sprawling and agrarian community late Friday evening, November 11, in hail of gunfire and explosives making the inhabitants to scamper into the bush for safety, a reign of terror that made nursing mothers to abandon their babies to make their escape easy.